HOW WAS THIS FIASCO ALLOWED TO HAPPEN?
THE situation that the FAI finds itself in with Martin O’Neill is all its own making and could so easily have been avoided. It is absolutely crazy that, having agreed a new deal before the win over Wales in October, the contract was not signed.
That was three months ago. It should have been done and dusted, and signed and sealed before the end of last year. He was technically a free agent, so of course O’Neill was within his rights to talk to Stoke City this week, or any other club for that matter.
The longer nothing remains signed, the longer he will be free to talk to any club who comes calling. And these clubs are under no obligation to contact the FAI. He is technically out of contract.
Now, to a certain extent, you can understand why a new contract was not drawn up immediately after it was verbally agreed, just a few days after the win over Moldova, in October.
There was the Wales game to prepare for at that stage and, having then got that terrific win in Cardiff, attention naturally switched straight away to the preparations for the play-off against Denmark in November.
You could argue that time could have been set aside to finalise a contract during the trip to Switzerland for the playoff draw, but it is perhaps understandable that it was not deemed a priority at that stage.
Once the Denmark game was out of the way, there are no excuses. Of course, having lost so badly, there was the inevitable disappointment, and realistically, no one will have been in the mood to discuss football and contracts in the immediate aftermath of the World Cup exit. But a fortnight, maximum, was surely long enough.
So from the end of November, through to Christmas and New Year, this matter could and should have been resolved. Clubs were bound to call O’Neill and yet the FAI didn’t think to have the contract signed by him.
This could have cost it money. If he had signed a contract, it can say he is worth a certain amount and can name its price, as Espanyol would have done with Quique Sanchez Flores. Stoke would have had to pay around £4 million compensation for him. Surely that is money the FAI could reinvest?
There have been five Premier League jobs up for grabs this season, and Martin O’Neill has been in the running, in the bookies’ top five, for all of them.
The warning signs were there for the FAI. In the build-up to the Denmark game, the Leicester job became available and there was, briefly, the possibility of a return to that club for O’Neill.
It would have made complete sense but he was ruled out, of course, because he was Ireland manager and he had a vital qualifier to worry about.
But why was the contract not put in front of him then? Every football fan knows that Premier League and Championship jobs frequently come up during the season. We all know how precarious the managers’ jobs are in England. It is a fickle business and if you lose four or five matches on the bounce, you are under pressure.
Look at Paul Clement at Swansea. One minute he is preparing to build a club for four or five years, a run of poor results and he is sacked.
THE perception in Ireland is very different but Martin O’Neill is still highly regarded in England. He was probably scarred by his experience in his last club role at Sunderland, but he did an excellent job at Leicester and Aston Villa and, of course, with Celtic.
People might say the game has changed and that he has not moved with the times, but I disagree with that.
He knows players and he knows how people react in different pressurised circumstances and while you may question him tactically, particularly after the Danish debacle, essentially he has a good record as a Premier League and international coach.
You have to wonder if he thinks he has fully reached the level he can with Ireland and it is the right time to step aside.
Although he agreed to stay on in principle, the criticism after the Denmark defeat would have hurt him, just as it had during the World Cup campaign. His reaction in the TV interviews proved he was unhappy with the tone some in the Irish media were taking.
Ireland qualified for the Euro 2016 finals in France and, although qualification for the European Championships is easier now, you still have to do it. Ireland did under O’Neill, and reached the knock-out phases with that magical win over Italy.
Quite rightly, he likes to remind us about those memorable wins over Germany and the Italians.
It is a pity that the latest campaign ended up on such a sour note with the defeat to Denmark. While we would have taken second place when the draw was made, it turned out the qualifying group was there to be won. The home form was not good enough throughout and because we were poor at the Aviva where we couldn’t beat our biggest challengers, Wales, Austria or Serbia, we fell short.
It is going to be difficult to carry on as if nothing has happened.
As soon as Ireland suffer a bad result, it will be thrown at him that he talked to Stoke and was not fully committed to Ireland. But that is not Martin O’Neill’s fault.
What is important, if he stays, is that Ireland make a good start to the next qualifying campaign because if results don’t go his way, his position will be questioned.